


The Fire That Burns Longest

by darkrose



Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Genre: Backstory, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-16
Updated: 2005-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-05 17:00:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkrose/pseuds/darkrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henri Ducard is many things. A liar is not one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fire That Burns Longest

You must grant me this, at least, Bruce: I have never lied to you.

I did not lie when I told you that my name is Ducard. It was that name I was known by when I was a stone mason in southern France, when my wife was murdered by thieves and rapists glorifying their crimes in the name of Church and crown. It was they who set me on my path, opening my eyes to the true nature of the world and driving me into the arms of men they burned as heretics; perhaps you recognize the irony in that.

I was Ducard when I learned the truth: that the world is evil, and cannot be saved. Balance is the best that man can hope for, that we may all be cleansed in the fires of destruction. I was very much Ducard when I discovered that although love is an illusion and a weakness, there is no shame nor sin in sharing pleasure so long as children are not brought into this flawed existence. I was Ducard when I was sent from Montsegur with three others the night before the fortress was taken and all the souls within released from the flesh, walking into the pyres of their own free will. I was still Ducard when I made my way eastward to learn at the feet of the Old Man of the Mountain.

It was he who taught me the way of the shadows, and he who named me Ra's Al Ghul.

I did not lie when I told you that Ra's Al Ghul had shown me my path. I have seen eight centuries pass. I have seen dynasties, nations, and empires fall; sometimes it has been my honor and privilege to help them to their natural end. It has been my purpose, the fire that drives me. I have risen to head the League of Shadows, and to guide its course and by extension, that of the world. But even with that purpose to sustain me, I have not yet been able to achieve true perfection that transcends the physical. I am still flawed, still weak enough to desire a legacy that will stand even when I have finally found peace. I craved a successor, a child of the spirit to continue the League's work.

When I heard that you were there in the prison, when I first spoke with you, when you carried the flower up the mountain, I thought that I had found what I sought. I hoped that we both had.

I still do not know what you were seeking that night on the ice after I'd beaten you, when you crawled shivering into my bedroll. Warmth perhaps, or comfort. There was little comfort to be found in our coupling, though there was much heat. You love like you fight, with a passion that is a wild thing with a life of its own, a grass fire burning out of control. It will consume you, if you let it, Bruce--but you know that.

For all the times you came to my room after that, it was the night you made it to the foot of my bed before I realized that you were there that I was the most proud of you. It was then, that last time for us, that I came closer than I have in eight hundred years to wavering from my path. I knew that you were ready to face your final test, and I...I feared the outcome, for myself as much as for you. And I was right to do so. I faced my own greatest fear that next day, reflected in the flames as I watched you burn the temple to the ground, driving out the Shadows with your fire.

I did not lie when I told you that compassion was a weakness. It is your greatest flaw, and I failed you when I did not succeed in training it out of you. You should have left me to fall to my death on the mountain, but you could not, and so I was left with imperfect tools like Falcone and Crane to use in completing my work. You should have done what was necessary on the train, and killed me with the blade that was my parting gift to you.

Remember, Bruce, that there is no place so bright that shadows cannot reach.

I did not lie when I told you that Ra's Al Ghul is immortal.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my version of the backstory for Ducard/R'as-al-Ghul as played by Liam Neeson in _Batman Begins_. Based on his stated goals in the film, I decided to make him a [Cathar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar) who was trained by the [Hashshashin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin).


End file.
